Is Google Changing Its Name?

You may have heard that Google is changing its name to Alphabet, but it’s not so cut and dry as that.

Yes, Google is changing its name when it comes to a few of the things that the company does, but the Google that you know is still alive and well. All mixed up in Alphabet soup? Here’s what’s really going on at Google Headquarters.

The Alphabet Name Game

Where did Alphabet come from, and why would Google want to change its well-known name? Here’s where things get kind of confusing. Alphabet holding company was a subsidiary of Google a long time ago and for a long time. Then, Alphabet went through a reverse takeover, which essentially means that Alphabet has taken over Google. While this doesn’t happen often, when it does happen a lot of people become confused - especially when it happens to company like Google that is so very well known around the world.

Does Google still exist? Technically, yes. The Google that you have come to know is still around, but it’s an entirely different company now. That company is called Alphabet. So how does this impact Google users? Well, you’ll see things like the popular Chrome search now features the name ‘Alphabet’ instead of Google, and some other Google services are now called Alphabet as well.

What Else is New

You’ll see a new brand, a new website, and new details about the company that extend as far as its ethics details. What does this mean exactly? It seems as though Alphabet’s terms of conduct aren’t as, well, ethical as Google’s used to be (or seemed to be). Alphabet’s terms are rather generic while Google’s were once really specific. Then again, Google has grown into a massive company that few people really saw coming.

What about all the data that Google has collected over the years? Technically, all of that now belongs to Alphabet and will be used and kept as Alphabet sees fit. However, this doesn’t mean that the data is completely void of privacy and other laws. All transactions still have to be legal including anything to do with data.

Confusing For Sure

So there you have it. Google is now Alphabet, but Google still exists though on a smaller scale. You’ll see the changes taking place (logo, name, etcetera) over the next few weeks if you haven’t seen some of these changes already.

For marketers, the takeover could mean that the website laws and terms and algorithm details that were once important are no longer in place, but all of that remains to be seen. It is this writer’s estimation that Alphabet may be more lax when it comes to thing like original web content, but time will tell if that’s true or not.

The biggest change that has happened so far (and the one that most people are talking about) is that Google has dropped its famous “don’t be evil” clause from its code of ethics. Alphabet has rephrased that very specific clause to “obey the law.” This could, quite possibly, mean that the ethical Google you once knew is about to go by the wayside.